In this blog post, I reflect on my experiences of providing audio summative feedback to university students at Manchester Metropolitan University, arguing that audio feedback is a form of emotional labour (Spaeth, 2018). By ‘emotional labour’, drawing on Hochshild’s (1983) definition in the context of service-caring work, I mean the ways in which I introduce or suppress emotions to portray myself in a certain light that produces a desired state of mind in others. In this blog post, I build on Henderson-Brooks’ (2021) account of the emotional labour involved in written feedback. I do so in the context of audio feedback I provided to students using the voice comments function on Turnitin – a tool which helps ascertain the originality of work and provides a means of providing feedback, via the virtual learning environment Moodle (an online learning platform).

It is important to reflect on my positionality, since ‘each marker brings their own lived experiences to marking, including personality; age; academic philosophy; and their previous student identity’ (Henderson-Brooks, 2021, p. 116). I am a fairly ‘young’ (34 years old), female, senior lecturer, with a chronic illness. I still recall my experiences of receiving feedback at university: of sometimes not understanding why I was awarded a particular grade; being disappointed with the quantity and/or quality of feedback; or considering that the feedback had not conveyed enough positivity when I had achieved highly. This feeds into my desire to provide detailed and thorough feedback/developmental feed forward, and to emphasise enthusiasm when students have done well, and offer support when students may be disappointed with their mark.

‘I still recall my experiences of receiving feedback at university: of sometimes not understanding why I was awarded a particular grade; being disappointed with the quantity and/or quality of feedback; or considering that the feedback had not conveyed enough positivity when I had achieved highly.’

The idea for the unit I lead to trial audio feedback arose from colleagues as part of a programme-level action plan in response to the National Student Survey, as a means of helping to communicate the tone of feedback to students. Other lecturers on this unit provided audio feedback, while other units on the programme continued to provide written feedback. I consider the different feedback styles a strength, recognising that different styles of feedback may be better suited to different students, assignment type or stage of degree.

When providing feedback, I felt pressure to not only say the right kind of comments, but also in the ‘correct’ tone, as I reflect below:

‘I feel a need to be constantly 100% enthusiastic. I am worried if I sound tired, students may think I was not concentrating enough marking their assessment; if I sound low mood that I am disappointed with them; or sounding too positive that it does not match their mark.’ (Reflective diary)

As can be seen, I found it emotionally exhausting having to perform the perfect degree of enthusiasm, which I individually tailored to each student and their mark. This is confounded by the fact that I have an autoimmune disease and associated chronic fatigue which means I get very tired and have little energy. Consequently, performing my words/voice/tone is particularly onerous, as is sitting for long periods of time when providing feedback. Similarly, Ekinsmyth (2010) asserts that colleagues in her study felt a need to be careful about the words used, and the tone of audio feedback. This was exemplified when a student had done particularly well, or had not passed the assignment.

In this blog post I have highlighted that emotions are key to the often-considered mundane task of providing assignment feedback to students (Henderson-Brooks, 2021). Throughout, I have brought to the fore worries and anxieties when providing audio feedback, related to the emotional labour required in saying appropriate words and performing the ‘correct’ tone. The other side of this is that audio feedback has the potential to facilitate a sense of care, or ‘compassionate’ feedback – from the lecturer marking the work, to the student receiving the feedback – which may consequently mean that a student is better placed to engage with the feedback. Making visible the emotional labour and sense of care involved in providing audio feedback is important because it can assist in elevating the status of audio feedback beyond being considered a mere administrative task, which may be useful for workload purposes.

If you are considering taking forward audio feedback in your own work, I would recommend publicising to students the purpose of audio feedback so they are more familiar with what to expect and how to get the most out of this mode of feedback (Ekinsymyth, 2010). This may also alleviate some of the worries of colleagues regarding how to perform for students when providing audio feedback.

References

Ekinsmyth, C. (2010). Reflections on using digital audio to give assessment feedback. Planet, 23(1), 74–77. https://doi.org/10.11120/plan.2010.00230074

Henderson-Brooks, C. (2021). Marking as emotional labour: A discussion of the affective impact of assessment feedback on enabling educators. International Studies in Widening Participation, 8(1), 110–121. https://novaojs.newcastle.edu.au/ceehe/index.php/iswp/article/view/158

Hochschild, A. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press.

Spaeth, E. (2018). On feedback and emotional labour. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 6(3), 83–86. https://doi.org/10.14297/jpaap.v6i3.359